Wings of Liberty
by ZenWriterZero
Summary: A novelization and my own personal vision for the events of the beginning of the Second Great War.
1. Liberation Day

Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft 2 or anything associated with Blizzard Entertainment or anything to do with Activision (damn money grubbers) either. I think I covered my bases. This ladies and gentlemen, is how I see Wings of Liberty. A great story that wasn't quite told well. Thus, here is my answer to it. Some of the dialogue will be improved upon. (Kerrigan not once, not _once_ mentioning Razagal to Zeratul? Not taunting him about that? Please…) and some of the scenes may be added and/or modified a bit. (Or more than a bit. I mean rain on Char? Rain? Really?) And some of the characters may be expanded on based upon the lore I've researched. (I'm a lore nerd for Starcraft : p) Other than that, this is essentially a novelization of Wings of Liberty. So as always everybody, please read, review and enjoy!

Starcraft 2

Wings of Liberty

_Mar Sara_

If somebody had told me four years ago that I'd once again be sitting here at Joeyray's drinking a glass of Old No. 8, I would have almost laughed before punching him out. I was in orbit when I saw the protoss burn up the planet. I was sure then that I'd never come back here cause there'd be nothin' to come back to except a dead rock floatin in space.

But I guess a lot can happen in four years, people can recolonize, rebuild, and create a life back out here. And then Mengsk's damn Dominion can swoop in here and make that life into all kinds of hell.

I took another shot of Scotty Bolger's to try and drown the rising bitterness. Didn't seem to help.

The bar was empty, Joeyray said that I could stay here till I was done doin what I needed to do. Even allowed me to put everything I bought on tab. Guy always was nice.

The sunset bathed the landscape in a golden light, damn I gotta say, I've missed Mar Sara a lot these past few years. More than I care to admit really.

Y'know now that I think about it, Mar Sara's always been a turning point in my life. It's where I decided to live and become a Marshall after I quit being an outlaw. Where I married Liddy and settled down with her. Had a kid, then lost em' both.

And then it was here that I met up with Mengsk and Michal Liberty, joined the Son's of Korhal and got into this latest mess.

Now had you told me four years ago I'd be the leader of a revolution against a dictator I helped put into power, I'd have dragged you off to the nearest psyche ward. Life's funny that way I guess.

I came back to Mar Sara for two things. One, was to try and come to terms with some things from my past. I've had a lot of thinking to do, and this revolution of mine doesn't really seem to be goin' anyplace fast. So I figured it was time to come to come back and put things to rest with the past.

Plus I guess Mike helped with that. Little while ago he sent me a transmission, sayin only this, "run from your past and it'll chase you down even faster."

Don't know why he sent that. Anybody who intercepted the message are probably still scratchin' their heads about what it meant. But I guess Mike knew the past was on my mind a lot lately.

So I went to my old house, found the safe that I kept all my memento's in. Vidsnaps of me with the Heaven's Devils, me with Liddy and Johnny, my old marshal's badge, even my wedding ring.

The house was so completely wrecked it was a wonder it survived at all. Even the old swing set Johnny used to love was still here, busted, but here.

I then went to my wife's gravestone, finally said my goodbye's and burned my memento's. All except my marshal badge which seemed to refuse to be burned.

I guess it was a bit liberating. When Liddy and Johnny died, I never really mourned. I threw myself into my work to keep from thinking about it. And then what with the whole deal with the protoss, zerg, the Son's of Korhal, and the Dominion, hasn't been a whole lotta time for dealing with grief.

So that was one of the reasons I came back. But if I'm honest, I doubt I would have done that if Mar Sara didn't have the other reason for comin' back.

That reason bein' that the Dominion was sticking its fingers into something that didn't belong to it. And I don't take kindly to that.

I still had some time to kill so I turned on the tv. Flipping through the channels till I found the news. At first it was local news informing me of exactly what I wanted to hear. Mar Sara's people were gettin mighty pissed at what the Dominion was doin to them. Just right for a little revolutionizing.

I stared back at the table in thought as the news rattling off details. Then it switched to other news, and that only meant one thing. Mengsk.

I opened another bottle and refilled my glass. I was gonna need it.

"…Commemorating the end of the so called, Brood War 4 years ago. Our own Kate Lockwell was on the scene."

"Emperor, the threat of a zerg invasion is still very real, but instead of expanding our fleets you've squandered trillions hunting down has been rebels like Jim Raynor."

Has been huh? Owch. Worse thing is, some days I feel exactly like that. Then came that voice, that swarmy charming voice that should have made me shoot him the second I heard him open his mouth all those years ago.

"Allow me to answer with a question miss Lockwell, where did you get such ridiculous numbers? I know very well the threat that the zerg pose to the survival of every man, woman and child of humanity. Though they have not shown themselves for years, they are still out there, waiting to devour and infest us all. But I have not been idle! Trillions have not gone into hunting rebel factions, trillions have gone into improving our armies, advancing our technology in unprecedented ways so that when they do return, we will be ready and we will defeat them, together."

_Always did have a way with words didn't you, you bastard._ I thought to myself.

"But make no mistake, Jim Raynor still represents a clear and present threat to this Dominion. He is an unscrupulous, lawless revolutionary bent of spreading fear and dissention across the sector in a time when we need unity and order to face the greater threats to our very survival! Remember when the zerg tore through Antiga Prime? When they laid waste to Tarsonis? The zerg have killed trillions of people and Raynor would still have us fight amongst ourselves with such a threat…"

I let Mengsk's rant fade from my hearing as the familiar rage welled up in me. Antiga Prime? Tarsonis? He's the one who murdered those planets! And how _dare_ he use Tarsonis to justify _anything_!

The thought of Tarsonis brought my eyes to the table again. I had my revolver (I know I know, its outdated, always did have a soft spot for antiques.) some glasses and a vidsnap in front of me. I reached out and turned the vidsnap over.

A beautiful red haired woman with absolutely gorgeous green eyes smiled at me. This was probably one of the few pictures in existence of her when she was still human. And I'd bet all the credits in Koprulu that's it's the only one where she's smiling.

Sarah Kerrigan, former Confederate Ghost, former second in command to the Son's of Korhal. Former friend and almost…something more to me.

I've lost people to betrayal before, hell, almost my entire unit, the Heaven's Devils were wiped out because our superior officer decided to screw us over for credits. And it never got easier. Betrayals like that are unforgivable.

And of course Mengsk's betrayal couldn't have just ended in Kerrigan's death now could it? No the zerg had to take her and twist her into a damn monster. And then _she _had to go and betray and murder countless people. And all because of that bastard sitting on a throne using the innocent lives he killed to justify whatever he damn well wants to do.

Now the familiar guilt decided to take a turn to mess with ol' Jimmy's head. I should have been there at New Gettysburg. I should never, _never _have let her go alone down there.

"…I assure you, this criminal will be brought to justice, very soon."

But between feeling anger or guilt, I guess I'll take anger over guilt any day.

I grabbed my revolver and aimed it at the tv. "It ain't over till it's over you son of a bitch."

I fired at one of the smaller tv screens, right smack dab where that bastards greedy heart was and his image faded from the screen.

In hindsight, I suppose that wasn't' exactly the most mature thing to do. Its not easy to get new bullets for this thing. But right then and there, I was too damn pissed off and Joeyray could add it to my tab.

Deciding to be a little more constructive with my anger, I activated a portable adjutant console I brought with me. Its face faded into view and looked at me.

"Adjutant, are my troops ready yet?"

The vaguely female A.I. looked oddly pleased as it gave its report. "Your forces are prepared and awaiting your orders commander. Uploading tactical data now."

"Good. Bout time we kicked this revolution into overdrive."

Oh yeah, it's much better taking anger out on Dominion assholes who aren't on a screen.

"Adjutant, what have you got for me?"

The Adjutant's green face faded as it projected a screen of various Dominion assets on this planet.

"Dominion forces have set up a logistics headquarters in the town of Backwater Station. This has become the hub for all operations on Mar Sara. The Dominion recently pulled troops from out of the city and are now under strength."

"Are the locals cooperating?"

"The people of Backwater Station are known to be anti-Dominion but lack weapons and organization."

Weapons and organization huh? I think I can help with that.

"Prep my ship."

My ship arrived pretty quickly, along with my armor and a platoon of some of my troops.

One of my marines popped his helmet open and grinned. "Bout time sir! We were starting to think we just came to this planet for the sightseeing."

Despite my anger, I couldn't help but grin back. "Ah hell I couldn't do that to ya boys. I know firsthand that Mar Sara ain't much to look at. Even before the protoss gave her a makeover."

That earned laughs all around.

"Heh, nice sir. Your suits in the back, lookin' badass as usual."

My men were in a good mood today. Then again, making strikes against the Dominion pretty much always got them in a good mood. Worked for me.

I walked to the back of the ship, looking a bit like a small child compared to the CMC clad soldiers around me.

Then I reached my own armor. Standing like a black golem out of some old earth legend. Its pitch black paintjob made it stand out from the blue and grey or red and grey of most CMC suits. But what really made this special, was the skull painted on the faceplate.

This wasn't a suit you wore for battle, this was a suit you wore for when you were gonna kill anything in your way.

This suit had served me pretty well in the past and still hasn't failed me.

Through years of practice, I managed to get quickly into the suit and seal it up without too much effort. Firin it up and testing the movements. Perfect.

"Alright boys, lets get this show on the road. Mar Sara was home for me for a long time. And I don't take kindly to the Dominion making itself at home here. So how about we kindly show them the door."

There were whistles roars of approval. Damn, they must have really needed this.

Our dropship flew in low, hopefully under any sensor sweeps until we arrived a few klicks away from the control center. I figured we could pass through the towns and take out any Dominion soldiers keeping the locals under a curfew.

When the ship landed, we all quickly exited the hold.

"All right boys," I called out. "Let's show the locals they don't need to fear the Dominion!"

We ran a few hundred meters toward the entrance to the outskirts of the town. Taking cover to look for any signs of Dominion guard. Nothing yet. In fact, there didn't seem to be anybody around here…

"Keep your intervals wide, your eyes open and your asses covered. Let's move."

Quickly pressing onward, we began to enter the town. There seemed to be signs of an evacuation gone bad. An entire line of vehicles all smashed together in a crash. But there were no bodies in them, not to point out the obvious, but something was wrong.

There were dogs all over the place, lookin for a meal. One of my boys almost shot one as it scurried away. Seeing too many zerglings in one's life tended to make one skittish towards animals of roughly the same size.

It was then that we met our first local. An elderly woman who seemed almost shell shocked from something as she aimlessly wandered around outside of a house. We approached her to make sure she was ok.

"Don't go up that road." Is all that she said before she went back into her house in fright.

We didn't really have any medical supplies or time to make sure she was alright, but we managed to make sure she stayed in what seemed to be her house. She'd be safer in there.

We kept moving and then came up on our first Dominion targets. Two Marines who must have drawn the short stick patrolling wise. Or they were looking for anybody who was still around.

I signaled my boys to surround them, when they were in position I ordered them to open fire. They went down pretty quickly, one of them managing to spot my distinctive skull faced helmet and saying "Raynor…" before going down.

_That's right assholes, Jimmy Raynor is back. _I thought with no small satisfaction.

Leaving the two dead marines we came up on something that made my blood boil. A holoboard with Mengsk's likeness on it spouting propaganda.

"Dissent will only weaken us in a time when we need unity," the synthesized voiced boomed. On the more positive side of things though, someone had taken some paint and put graffiti that said "Mengsk Lies" on a nearby billboard. Beautiful sight, now to improve it.

"I'm gettin' mighty tired of seeing Mengsk's face. Burn it!"

We all opened fire on and it went down in a gorgeous plume of fried electronics.

But I was just getting started. Finally we reached the main part of the town. And yet still there wasn't a sign of hide nor hair of any of the locals.

"Where is everyone?"

The only reply I got was gunfire as a lone Dominion marine opened fire on us.

He managed to get a hit on my suit but luckily it was a glancing hit. And then he went down hard.

Without a word we quickened our pace as we moved out. All of us wanting to know where the hell everybody was.

We came across another shell-shocked soul who was surrounded by some dead and chard bodies. The only thing he kept repeating was,

"My neighbors…my _family_…"

I felt a growing dread and sympathy for the poor bastard.

"This is startin' to look ugly."

My boys and I couldn't do anything more for the man so we kept going.

Then my adjutant patched herself into my helmet. "Commander, a large Dominion force is gathering in the center of town."

I kept my head down as I peaked at the town square. Sure enough, a sizeable amount of Dominion troops were there, all well entrenched and outnumbering my boys almost three to one. Attacking them right now would be suicide.

But I just smirked as I waited for the squad of those new Viking flyers to pass overhead.

"Then its time to call in that special delivery we talked about."

That was the signal, high above the atmosphere of Mar Sara, A group of dropships suddenly detached the drop pods that were hooked onto the bottom of each ship. Each pod carried a fresh new platoon of my marines.

I can only imagine what went through the minds of the Dominion soldiers as the pods landed right smack dab in the middle of them all. Crushing a few of them and burning others with their control thrusters. Then my boys came out and the party _really _got started.

The troops with me didn't need any prompting as we charged into the surprised troops. Firing as we ran and taking them out by the score. One marine managed to take cover and tried to take me by surprise as I got near the sandbags. Fortunately I was close enough to just punch out his visor with one gauntleted fist.

After we were done, my new troops gave a cheer.

"Thanks for the assist. We're with ya Raynor!"

I nodded my thanks and we started to continue on our way. Blowing up more holoboards and taking out more patrols.

Still searching for everybody through what could now be called a ghost town.

Until we found them

"Finally! There's the locals."

We kept a low profile as we assessed the situation. An armored transport with armed guard. It looked like they were loading up people by the dozens.

My hand clenched in anger as I listened in with my helmet's enhanced hearing.

"You'll all be givin a meal when you reach the dig sight." The leader by the looks of him. _Dig sight?_

However before I could think of what they were digging up, my attention went to a civilian at the back of the line.

"My brother went off to the mines last week. He disappeared!"

My blood ran cold with what I knew he was about to do. _Damn it man just wait a moment for us to get into positon!_

But he tried to run anyway and they gunned him down easily.

That was the last straw. "They're shootin civilians! Move in!"

And then we were on them. Shooting up the armored transport and giving the Dominion troops more holes to breathe out of.

After everything that could shoot at us was down, we got the prisoners out of the transport and blew it to hell.

"Mengsk has a lot to pay for…" Making prisoners of damn good people, people who I helped out as a marshal. Sometimes I swear if I ever get my hands on that bastard, I'll beat him to death instead of just shooting him. Or hell, maybe I could feed him to a pack of zerglings, an inch at a time.

I popped open my visor to get some fresh air and a lot of the locals started laughing in relief as they recognized me.

"Well I'll be damned. Thanks Raynor, shoulda known you wouldn't forget about us."

"There's more people still being held up ahead." Another one said.

"I'll see to them." I promised her. Then I signaled two of my troops to escort the locals back to town while the rest of us went into the base.

The Dominion must really not have given much of a crap about this planet, because there were few guards to watch out for the prisoners. Me and my boys quickly took em out and got the prisoners out of the and we also busted open some weapons caches.

As I tore the door off one of the prisons, another old friend of mine looked at me and smiled.

"Marshal Raynor. Been awhile since we've seen you around these parts."

"Figured I'd stop in and say hello to everybody." I quipped back.

I then had my troops pass out some weapons to everybody.

From there it we did what we did best. Raised some hell.

"We're with ya Raiders!" One guy called out and the rest responded with a cheer as my troops and I took the lead in storming the base.

My raiders and me took out every surprised Dominion soldier that came out to stop us while the locals pretty much just blasted everything else in the base.

"This is a restricted area! You insurgents are under arrest!"

My reply to the Dominion bigshot was to shoot out the nearest speaker.

Finally we got to the logistics center, just as a squad of marines and two vikings took up defensive positions.

"Take cover!"

The vikings began to shoot at us first. Pinning us down behind cover. Luckily, the locals managed to take cover too and in fact, it looked like they were sneaking around behind the Dominion forces…

And that's exactly what those magnificent bastards did. Snuck up behind the vikings and started throwing grenades by the dozens.

The viking is a tough machine, but I don't care how much armor you have on ya, if a couple dozen of grenades are thrown at ya, you _will_ feel it.

Plus it had the added benefit of making the marines and the other viking turn around. Big mistake.

"Hit em!"

We burst from our cover guns blazin. Mowin down the rest of the marines and hitting the last viking in the joints where hopefully it would cause the most damage.

I didn't need to worry though, my new impromptu army already took care of most of them. Now it was just a matter of destroying that last building.

"Burn it boys!"

There are very few things in the sector that can withstand a constant barrage of explosives and gunfire coming from over a hundred angry locals. This building was not one of them.

The cheer that went up from everybody put all the others to shame. People were climbing up on the remains of one of the vikings and shooting guns in the air.

"We can beat them!" one woman kept shouting.

I smiled a little. A smarter man would have used this victory to stock up on his own resources. Those weapon stockpiles could come in handy. But I figured they needed them more than I did.

"Now you've got the weapons and the resources to do it. Remember, Mengsk can only control you if you let him."

Like I let him four years ago…

The cheering rose into the sky and made me feel a little better. I'd just liberated what used to be my home, a place where a lot of good folks made their livin.

I left some of my troops to party and help out a little longer. As for me? I headed back to Joeyrays alone. Cause despite this victory, as much as it mattered to me, I wasn't nearly as happy as I should have been. Mengsk was still on his throne and I was no closer to kicking him off of it then I was before. And Kerrigan was still alive, biding her time until she decided to come back to kill us all.

I needed a drink…


	2. The Outlaws

Disclaimer: I don't own Starcraft or anything associated with Blizzard. Wish I kind of did though. That would be freakin' awesome! Wow, so many reviews in such a short time! Thanks everybody! Glad you like it so far. I'll do my best to keep the ball rolling on this and I'll be sure to take into account some of your suggestions. I can't promise I'll actually do them but I will keep them in mind. Especially since a lot of what you want to see from this story could very well be what I wanted to see. Oh and by the way, most of this will be taking place from Jimmy's point of view. But I think I will switch it up from time to time as needed. But if you're really interested in a different point of view, check out my story Scoundrel. It views things from Tychus' point of view. Not the whole story, but what I think are the important bits. Also one last thing, some of you have noticed that I am crap at editing and spelling. Know any good beta readers? I'm in the market. And as always please read, review and enjoy!

Old Times

The Outlaws

I found myself back at Joeyray's Bar a short time later, still knockin back some more Old No. 8. Joeyray must not have come around here yet cause my glasses and various bottles of alcohol were still on the table when I got back.

Ignoring a rather persistent fly that kept buzzin' around, I downed another glass.

That's when I heard the door open with a metallic wheeze and somebody walked in.

Somebody wearing marine armor by the sound of the footsteps. And I doubt it was one of my boys otherwise they'd have spoken up by now.

_A Dominion marine? A bounty hunter? _I tensed up and slowly I started to inch my hand toward my pistol in front of me. Careful not to make any sudden moves.

My guest spoke in a filtered voice.

"Y'know, for the most wanted man in the sector, you ain't that hard to find."

Almost got my pistol…

"I had to see it for myself…"

My hand was pretty much grabbing my gun as his helmet hissed open and a voice I hadn't heard in nearly a decade spoke again.

"…Little Jimmy Raynor, the people's hero."

My eyes widened and I almost spun around in surprise. I certainly never expected to see _him _again. The tension faded from my body as my hand went back to my glass.

"Tychus Findlay," I drawled as I took another drink. "Nice suit."

He came up next to my seat and leaned on the bar. Not caring that he knocked off a lot of empty bottles and glasses.

"Pays to be prepared," he said like it was a matter of fact.

With my glass empty I poured out the last of this bottle.

"I heard they put you on ice. Life sentence. What? They give you time off for good behavior?"

Tychus smirked as he took a long drag of his cigar.

"That's right old buddy," he blew out a rather large cloud of smoke.

"I'm a model citizen now," and crushed the damn fly that had been buggin me under his cigar.

I laughed at his statement. _That would be the day._

"So to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Just a friendly business proposition."

Ah good ol Tychus, always with a plan to get rich quick. I grabbed a nearby bottle and shook it to see if it had anything left in it. Nothin.

"Do you even know what the Dominion are doin' out here?"

"I'm gussin' you're about to tell me."

He leaned in a bit. "Diggin' up alien artifacts old buddy. Your boy Mengsk has gone _crazy_ for them."

I smiled as I found a bottle of cognac that I was pretty sure I hadn't got to yet. A smile that faded when Tychus beat me to it. Holding it with just two fingers of his massive gauntlets.

"But I've got a contact who'll pay top dollar for ever artifact we…_liberate_ from the Dominion." He said shaking the bottle for emphasis.

Huh, I'm short of funds and have a chance to fix that and keep Mengsk from getting something he wants, a golden deal. Of course, Tychus always was good at figuring out all the angles.

"I guess I can _hardly_ pass that up now. Can I Tychus?" _And you knew that long before you came in here. Didn't you old friend?_

"Partners then," he declared as he poured me a glass.

"60/ 40," and tapped the glass toward my waiting hand.

"70/30," I countered picking up the glass. "My way."

His face looked like something halfway between a smile and as he remembered the last deal where someone declared a 70/30 split. I couldn't help but let out a small laugh from the memories.

"Feels like old times already," I said as I held up my glass for a toast.

"Old times," he agreed as we toasted to our new partnership.

"Now that we've got that out of the way," I continued. "Allow me to state as your new partner, that damn am I glad to see you, you son of a bitch."

"Haha! Feelin's mutual ol buddy."

"Call me curious, but how'd you get out?"

Tychus smiled as he leaned back to tell his tale.

"Well, I busted out of my cryofreezer while they were transportin me to New Folsom. Ohhhh, I must've killed at least a _dozen _guards with my bare hands."

I chuckled at that. Tychus always did like his embellishments.

"Yeah I've heard this one before. But you left out the part where you walked on water, made off with the warden's daughter."

He seemed a bit put out by that. Embellishing the escape stories was one of his favorite things to do back in the old days.

"Don't you get uppity with me boy. I heard all about you becomin' a big time freedom fighter while I was away."

He gestured around at the admittedly kinda dingy bar around us.

"What happened Jimmy? The war for truth and justice get too much for ya?"

I locked eyes with him. "I ain't licked yet Tychus. And I promise you, Mengsk is goin' down, one way or another."

Don't exactly know _how _but I'll be damned if I don't bring him down before I die.

Tychus backed down a bit after that. "Alright alright. No need to be hostile. Way I figure it, we got ourselves a few hours before we gotta nab that artifact. And we have a lot of catchin' up to do. Cause I gotta tell ya Jimmy, when I first saw this,"

He pulled a folded piece of paper and set it on the table.

"I just couldn't believe it."

I unfolded the paper and saw a rather familiar face starin back at me. It was my own personal wanted poster. With a reward of 500,000 credits dead or alive for mass murder, terrorism, sabotage, rebellion, incitement, grand larceny, piracy and sedition.

All those false charges aside though, well, granted except for rebellion, incitement, grand larceny and sedition, the thing that really pissed me off was that the face hardly looked a thing like me.

"Come on, I'm better lookin than _that," _I said in disbelief. Granted, I know that not having a good likeness of me posted everywhere helps me move about without getting reported. But still…

Tychus seemed to get a bit of a good kick out of that though. "As much as I'm usually inclined to inform you just how butt ugly you are Jimmy, in this case you're right. Only thing attractive about that picture is the number underneath it. Way bigger than it ever was for both of us when we were outlaws."

"Yeah well, its all a matter of who you piss off Tychus."

He snorted at that and looked around the bar for some more booze. In the middle of his search, he spotted a new vidsnap of one of the busted vikings from my earlier raid. One of my troops had taken a picture of it, made some copies and gave one to me as a souvenir.

"What's this? This looks recent. This your doin Jimmy?"

"Folks in these parts are ready to fight back against Mengsk. Guess they just needed a little push."

"You still take this whole revolution thing pretty serious then."

"Everyone needs a hobby Tychus," I said sagely.

His reply was a grunt of no comment. Tychus never was one for causes unless he could get somethin' from them. Namely, credits.

I figured this place was a bit too quiet so I made my way over to the jukebox to put on some tunes while Tychus continued to look for more drinks. I was right in front of the jukebox when somethin' caught my eye. A familiar vidnsnap underneath a recent newspaper page.

It was Sarah's picture with a note taped to it.

_"Figured you didn't want this just lying around anywhere. Don't worry, I won't add this to your tab. Joeyray."_

So he _was_ here earlier. Damn, the man really was a nice guy. I must've left this here when I went out. I ought to be more careful, this picture is…well I know its stupid but it's the only thing in the sector of her when she was still human. And I'm not talkin' about some old Confederate file that the Dominion has of her as a cold blooded government assassin, this picture was the only thing left of her as a person.

The smart thing to do would be to get rid of it. You shouldn't keep reminders of a person you've sworn to kill. But honestly? I just can't bring myself to do it and I'm not even sure why.

Hell, maybe I think if I forget the person she once was she'll really be dead. Ha! Nah that can't be it. The Queen of Blades has already shown that everything that was good about Kerrigan died when she emerged from that chrysalis.

With Tychus finally pourin' us some new drinks, I looked at the picture for a moment before putting it away.

_Sarah, sometimes…I think it would have been better it you'd just died that day._

Bad thing to think about someone you cared about, but it didn't make it less true. If she had just died, I could move on, all those people, Fenix , they would all still be alive. Granted, its debatable whether or not we'd all be alive or dead or under the UED's tyranny or not, but still…

I shook myself out of it as I went back to my barstool. Tychus had just turned the tv back on to UNN. Apparently, news spreads fast about my "misdeeds" against the Dominion.

"This is Donny Vermillion, live from the UNN studios on Korhal. We've got a breaking story for you let's go live to our own Kate Lockwell on the fringe world of Mar Sara. Kate?"

"Thanks Donny. Rebel Jim Raynor has reappeared in a big way. He's attacked a Dominion depot near Backwater Station seizing weapons and distributing them to the local populace. The planet is now in full rebellion against the Dominion. Loyal local law enforcement has been trying to capture the rebel, with no success so far. I'll keep you updated on the story as we learn more."

"You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen. Terrorist Jim Raynor inciting bloody rebellion among loyal Dominion planets. More details later today. Up next, survivors of Raynor's last attack speak out about the horrors the terrorist monster put them through. Viewers be warned, this interview is not for children or for the faint of heart."

I glared at the screen

"Keep talkin' pal. I'm just gettin' started."

Damn I hated Donny Vermillion, Mengsk's own personal mouthpiece.

"Man, you're not just the most wanted man the sector, you're the most hated too Jimmy."

The anger was back again. Anger at all the slurs and fake charges against me. All the accusations that I routinely go and kill kids or destroy defenseless settlements, women and children. Mengsk has done more damage to my revolution by constantly slandering me than he's ever done with any assault force. Making sure just about everybody hates me. Lucky for me though, too many people remember the good I've done for them. Assassinating me outright could cause ripples and Mengsk is doin' his damndest to avoid that.

"Load up your info Tychus, we've got work to do."

Tychus nodded as he grabbed a small disk and managed to slide it into a slot on my adjutant console. Damn impressive if you ask me with that suits massive fingers.

A display came up of what appeared to be a recording Tychus took before he came here judgin' by the time stamp. It looked like he was scoutin' a Dominion outpost that wasn't too far away from here. A rather small outpost that didn't seem to have anything of interest.

"This old outpost don't look like anything special."

"Keep your shirt on son. Dominion engineers been diggin' out here for months." Then he pointed something out on the screen. "See that crane? They're gettin' ready to move the artifact they found offworld."

I looked at the crane and realized that it went down a very deep shaft. A shaft deep enough to hold ancient artifacts.

"Well I'll be damned."

"See? You gotta have a little more faith Jimmy," Tychus said maybe a little smugly.

"Alright, time to give the Dominion a wake up call. Let's smash that base and haul that baby out of there."

I used the adjutant console to call up my boys. Thankfully, the celebrations hadn't gotten too out of hand yet. They were all still sober and could still shoot and follow orders.

I quickly introduced them all to Tychus and briefed them on the plan. Simply put, the plan was to go in, blow the base to hell, neutralize all Dominion forces in the area, plug the adjutant into the crane, grab the artifact and skedaddle.

Once the makeshift briefing was done, we headed for our dropships and soon enough, I was back in my armor again with Tychus by my side. Damn it really did feel like old times.

I fed the pilots the coordinates to the outpost and they kept the ships nice and low.

We dropped off a couple of klicks away from the base like we did last time and begun to head toward the base. But along the way, we got a rather interesting surprise.

"Commander, the Dominion is attacking te rebel base to the southwest."

Tychus was less than moved. "Good, that'll keep the Dominion off our backs."

"Those folks need our help Tychus. There's no way we're leavin em' to rot!"

Call me crazy, but even before Mengsk left Kerrigan and her strike force to die, the thought of abandoning people to their fate never sat well with me. And after that day, the idea downright pissed me off.

We all double timed it to the base, it wasn't long until it came into view. It was a small base with little a couple dozen rebels defending it. They seemed to be holding out pretty well but the Dominion's nothin' if not persistent. Takin' a closer look, it looked like the rebels were defending some civilians.

That definitely made things a bit more urgent. And besides, we were right behind the Dominion marines anyway. It'd only be rude not to introduce our gauss rifles to their backsides.

We mowed them down quickly and went to check up on the survivors.

One of the marines, the leader by the look of him, signaled his men to lower their guns and came out to greet us as the civilians cautiously came out of the makeshift shelters.

"You guys sure are a welcome sight. We're with ya! Just tell us where you want us."

"Welcome aboard boys," I replied. After this is over, a lot of the rebels on Mar Sara might want to join up with the Raiders for awhile. Rebellion sometimes equals recruitment when you're in the business I'm in.

I couldn't help but smirk a little as that reminded me of when I joined up with the Confederate marines. If I had only know how that was gonna turn out, I wonder if I would've still joined.

Then my smirk faded as I realized I'd have to make damn sure no one too young signed up with me. 18 being old enough to sign up for the military be damned, this rebellion of mine was no place for starry eyed kids hoping for the so called adventure of fighting a corrupt empire.

After makin' sure the civilians would be alright (and doin' my best to to not let the awed voices sayin' "its Raynor's boys or Raynor's the man" go to my head. We gathered everyone up and ith our new reinforcements in tow, Tychus and I led the charge toward the base.

And a few minutes later as we were gettin' closer to it, we all realized it was a damn good thing I had my adjutant plugged into what passed as a sensor grid around these parts

"Warning, Dominion Hellions approaching."

_Aw hell! _

"Take cover!"

We had barely managed to get into cover when two Hellions came screamin' down the path. Using their flamethrowers as they passed by.

_Great, that's all I need. Firebats on wheels._

The Hellions overshot us on their first pass but they were comin' around for another go.

"Hit em!"

We opened fire at the Hellions, concentrating on the one in front. Some of the shots must have gotten through the armored windshield cause it veered off and crashed.

The second one was almost on us though, and our armor might be tough, but flamethrowers can still cook a guy alive in em.

Thinking quickly, I threw myself on the ground and started firing at one of the tires on the Hellion. Those tires are built to take a lot of punishment, but I doubt even the protoss could invent a tire that's gauss rifle proof.

The vehicle spun out of control and crashed in a flaming blaze.

"Hot damn!"

I got up and brushed some of the dirt off my armor before signaling my men to head out.

But then we nearly ran headlong into a bunker filled with more Dominion marines.

"Damn," bunkers are hard as hell to clean out without explosives. But then I got an idea.

"Alright boys, keep givin' em something to think about. Tychus and you two, you're with me. We're goin' to back to those Hellions."

While most of my boys kept the Dominion on their toes, my group ran back to the destroyed Hellions. Both of their flamethrowers seemed mostly intact. Even better, the tanks for the flamethrowers seemed to be nearly full and the Hellion that had its cockpit shot out, could still be driven.

"I've got an idea." I outlined my plan to my troops who seemed to be torn between being impressed and wondering if I'd been drinking too much again. We quickly took out the tank from the Hellion that was flipped over, but then we went to the second one and with the strength our suits granted us, managed to carry the Hellion back to where the rest of my boys were holding the line.

I gave them a brief explanation and they nodded. We fired up the Hellion's engine and using some duct tape to keep the steering wheel locked and a large rock, to push the gas pedal down, we created ourselves an improvised bomb. Several of my boys still held the Hellion just above the ground, as soon as they dropped it, it would speed off in a straight line and hopefully hit the bunker in a blaze of glory.

"Alright boys, give us some cover. Ready…now!"

My boys opened up on the bunker with their rifles, doin' their best to hit the portholes of the bunker, as they did that, the ones holding onto the Hellion walked out from behind the cover and when they were sure they had aimed it right, set the Hellion down and got the hell back into cover.

The Hellion sped off like a missile and did everything that I hoped it would. Blew up in a huge blaze that gave the marines inside the bunker somethin' to think about besides my troops.

"Go, go, go!"

We charged it, rifles still blazing. In one of my hands I held my rifle and the other I had the tank of flamethrower fuel. When I got close enough to the bunker I threw the tank in there and shot it, igniting a huge inferno inside the bunker. And that wrapped that up nicely.

Apparently Tychus thought so too as he came up to my side.

"Nice job cleanin' out that bunker Jimmy. Between your boys and my skills, we are gonna go a _long_ way together."

I smirked at that and had to admit, he was probably right. Tychus might look like a muscle bound thug, but he was a lot smarter and a lot deadlier than people usually gave him credit for. And my boys have fought in battlefields all over the sector, they knew how to fight. Almost ten years later and we still make a good team.

With nothin' else standin' between us and the base, we hit the base hard. Rigging stuff to blow left and right, freein' locals who were forced to work as miners, demolishing a small Hellion factory, even used the adjutant to hack into the barrack's hover pads, makin' it lift off and fly miles away with a lot of Dominion soldiers still inside. It'll take them awhile to figure out how to land again.

After that, it was all a matter of moppin' up any stragglers left and securin' the crane. Once we were sure that we were all clear, I plugged the adjutant into the crane controls.

"Crane controls accessed. Decrypting security overides…crane control established."

Tychus smiled in triumph.

"Beautiful. Now let's reel that sucker in and get out of here."

The crane brought the artifact up and I got my first look at it and I gotta say, as soon as I saw it, I felt the hairs on my neck stand up. Its looks weren't anythin' special, just a black roughly triangular shape with cool blue lines on it. But despite not lookin like much, somethin' still seemed…almost wrong about it. Definitely not a protoss relic of any kind that I've seen before.

I had a bad feelin' about it, but deliverin' it to Tychus' buyers would get me credits that I desperately needed for the Raiders. And besides, Mengsk wanted it. That was all the reason I needed to keep it away from him.

We loaded the artifact up onto a transport we grabbed from the base and hightailed it the hell out of there.


	3. Zero Hour

Disclaimer: Whew FINALLY! Don't own Starcraft or anything of Blizzard's (wish I could own a Battlecruiser though, then again, who doesn't?) Sorry this took so long, things have been a bit crazy and my muse is fickle. Eventually I just wanted to get this chapter done so if its not my best work, sorry about that.

Anyway as always please read, review and enjoy!

Starcraft 2

Wings of Liberty

Zero Hour.

At this point, I should probably just make it official and star callin' Joeyray's bar the new headquarters of the Raiders.

After we secured the artifact at backwater station, my troops went back to partying and brought along the rebels we rescued too. A lot of them seemed to be willing to sign up for my revolution.

Tychus and I found ourselves alone at the bar again and I took a few minutes to call up Matt and let him know to come pick us up soon. Then I figured it was time to get back to business with Tychus.

"So who's your mysterious buyer, Tychus? Who're we supposed to hand this artifact over to?"

"A bunch of eggheads I ran into called the Moebius Foundation."

Huh, this was surprising. I'd heard a bit about Meobius, and everything I heard about it said that it was a clean organization.

"Moebius? They're a legitimate research group. Why the hell are they talkin' to you?"

Tychus' mouth quirked up in a stillborn smirk at that.

"Soon as your boy Mengsk made it illegal to trade in alien goods, they got desperate." Then he smiled like a hunter comin' up on easy prey.

"And you know me Jimmy. _I _am a great patron of the sciences."

"Uh huh," I replied with a smirk of my own.

"But enough about me. Let's talk about that stunt you pulled off earlier today." He gestured over to a Raynor's Raiders Recruitment poster. I think Matt had some of the crew come up with it. It certainly looked a hell of a lot more heroic than I felt. Personally I thought the thing was a little ridiculous but it just kind of happened.

"Have to say Jimmy, you turned into a real impressive fighter. If I was ol' Mengsk, I'd be runnin' scared from you too."

That was unexpected.

"You really mean that Tychus?"

"Nah, I was just kiddin'" then he started cackling like a maniac.

"You're an ass you know that Tychus."

He just continued to laugh it off. Lookin' back at the poster before somethin' else caught his eye.

It was a picture of one of the winners of the new "hydralisk derby."

"What's this? I heard them zerg got burned out by them creepy protoss a few years back." The thought of aliens still being on the planet probably snagged his curiosity.

"It's been four years and they're _still _finding burrowed dens out in the wastelands."

I could practically see credit signs light up in Tychus' eyes.

"Well a trophy like that's gotta fetch a good price on the black market. Up for some huntin' partner?"

"Knock yourself out Tychus. Me, I've hunted enough zerg for two lifetimes." Not to mention there's only one zerg I'm really interested in hunting down. Of course _that's_ goin' even worse than my fight against Mengsk.

Tychus must've picked up on my tone cause he took another look at the hydralisk skull mounted on the wall, trying to study it for somethin'.

"What was it like Jimmy," he asked quietly. "Fightin' them zerg?"

In this day and age it's hard to believe there's anybody who don't know about the zerg. Tychus must have been released not too long ago.

"All the scrapes we were in back in the day, all the narrow escapes…none of it compares to how terrible they are Tychus. You don't know what _real_ fear is till you've got a thousand of these sons of bitches barreling down on ya."

Tychus didn't seem to believe that. "None of it compares? Not even Ezekiel Daun?"

Ezekiel Daun. Man I haven't heard that name in years. Grade A, psychopath that one. He used to be one of the best bounty hunters in the sector before he went to prison (with a little help from a certain outlawed duo). Damn I hope that guy is dead by now. Back near the end of our career as outlaws, Daun was hired to kill me an' Tychus. Thing is, Daun didn't do dead or alive like most bounty hunters, he only did dead. The psycho liked to torture his bounties to death and record it for future viewing or to scare the livin' daylights out of another bounty.

For awhile Daun was the scariest thing in the galaxy to me. Used to have nightmares about him.

But things have kinda changed around here since then. And seeing zerglings rip bodies to pieces, or protoss zealots slice through hordes of zerg or even seeing Kerrigan in action as the Queen of Blades, kinda puts things in perspective as far as dangerous things that can kill you go.

"Hate to say it Tychus, but if I was ever given a choice between Daun and the zerg? I'd take Daun every time."

"You're crazy man."

I took another drink to cover my smirk. Sometimes I wish that were true Tychus. But at this point I think its safe to say that the whole damn sector's become crazier than I ever could be. And that's sayin' a lot.

"Course that don't come as any surprise to me. Especially after seein' that rather interesin' memento over yonder."

I looked at where he was pointing and sure enough, he was pointing right at my old marshal badge. Joeyray had cobbled a small plaque for it to hang on so now it sat proudly in a bar collectin' dust.

"Ah man," Tychus said in disbelief. "Didn't the magistrate know he was hirin' an _arch_ criminal as his marshal?"

I grinned. "He was _countin' _on it. Guess my tough guy reputation kept things nice and quiet around here. All the time I wore that badge, I never had to shoot anybody."

"Well where's the fun in that?"

"Hard as it is to believe Tychus, a guy _can_ have fun without shootin' people."

"Well…"

"Or stealin' things."

"But…"

"Or spendin' stolen money in brothels."

Tychus thought for a moment. "What the hell _do _people do for fun then?"

"I'll be sure to tell ya sometime Tychus."

"Hmph, you don't know either do ya?"

I was about to reply but the latest news report caught my eye. I waved for Tychus to be quiet and turned up the volume.

"Thanks for staying with us. Let's go now to Kate Lockwell with an update on Jim Raynor's violent uprising."

"Thanks Donny. Raynor's clearly widening his list of targets. He's attacked a Dominion archeological dig and possibly seized a dangerous alien artifact."

"Emperor Mengsk spoke on this subject earlier today."

The screen cut to an interview with Mengsk.

"There's no telling what kind of havoc these, supposedly innocuous relics might wreak upon our worlds. Anyone found in possession of these items will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law."

Meaning they'll probably be sent to prison without trial, that is if they're lucky enough to not be executed on the spot.

"Look on the bright side partner," Tychus intoned. "You're a wanted man either way."

"Thanks Tychus." I feel better already.

"Shocking Kate. I imagine casualties were high as a result of Raynor's terrorist actions."

Kate nodded. "The dig site was crewed mostly by scientists and volunteers. No survivors have been found at this time."

"Thanks Kate. You heard it here first ladies and gentlemen. James Raynor butchering unarmed archeologists on Mar Sara. "

I scoffed in irritation. There wasn't a single scientist on that base it was pure military. And funny how they don't mention the slave miners I freed or the fact that most of the troops in that base were still in the barracks when I sent it flying. And even if they don't have anyone in there who can crack a standard encryption the safety protocols on its boosters will force it to land long before it ever crashes.

I took another drink to cover up a sigh. Oh well, you get used to it. Hell, actually you don't. All the media attacks and the cover ups just make a guy more and more bitter.

I figured some music might lighten things up a bit.

"Hey Tychus, hit the juke box over there would ya?"

"Juke box?" He turned to where the juke box was in the corner as he noticed it for the first time.

"No way, aw hell!"

"What?"

"That's the juke box I nearly busted my back carryin' for you on New Sydney!"

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. But I guess now's a good time to get him back for that whole runnin' scared joke earlier.

"I don't know what you're talkin' about Tychus."

"Don't play with me Jimmy. I'd know that damn thing anywhere. You nearly got us both caught by the law cause you wouldn't leave without it."

"Still not ringin' a bell Tychus." I had to fight hard to keep the smirk out of my voice as well as off of my face.

"Ah whatever man. But tell you what though, if you want to take off with it this time find someone else to carry it cause I sure as hell ain't. Even if I'm actually in power armor this time."

"Sure thing Tychus," now I let the grin show.

"So when we gettin' out of here anyway? Dominion could actually track the artifact to the station."

I stood up and stretched out a moment.

"I got transport comin' to pick us up. All we gotta do is sit tight."

Tychus looked like he didn't mind the sound of that. Truth be told neither did I. It felt like ages since I just relaxed.

"Don't sound too hard. I figure, we earned ourselves a little R&R."

Hell yeah. Bit of drinkin' maybe we could get together with the locals and have some sort of party. Just a nice night to cut loose and…

"Commander, I'm detecting a massive concentration of zerg bio signatures landing at the abandoned dig sight."

Fekk me sideways.

"I should've known it," whenever there's anything , _anything _alien involved the zerg or the protoss were bound to be not too far behind it. And my good ol' buddy just _happens_ to give me the job offer of gettin' the artifact on the same day the zerg come back to Mar Sara? I Don't buy it. "Damn you Tychus!"

To his credit, he looked just as spooked as I felt.

"I _swear _man I didn't know nothin' about no zerg."

He sounded honest at least. But right now it didn't matter, I had a hell of a lot more pressin' business to look into.

"Given their current course," the adjutant continued calmly. "The zerg will overrun this location within the hour."

"Hell, we gotta hold out long enough for extraction." I switched the holoscreen to show a layout of the station. Pointing out the bunkers and bridges that led into it. "If we man the bunkers and hold those two bridges as long as we can, we just might stand a chance."

I let out a breath as I realized just how slim of a chance we had here. "We're gonna have a _real_ fight on our hands here."

Tychus tried to keep it cool.

"I been in plenty of holdouts before."

I didn't even bother to look back at Tychus.

"Not against the zerg you ain't."

So much for the night bein' relaxin'. I took a breath to steady my nerves. This ain't no time to let fear or surprise get the better of me. I could find out what the zerg were doin' out here later but for now…

"Adjutant, alert all my troops. Hell, alert everybody. Get all Raiders back to the station and start prepping for a holdout against the zerg. Tell em to get every scrap of ammo they can carry and start bringin' those missile turrets online."

"Aye aye commander." With that, she vanished.

"Tychus, grab your gun, you're gonna need it."

Tychus leaned over the bar and grabbed his C14 rifle with a grin.

"Alright. I want you to be in charge of settin' up defenses on the low ground till I get back. Try and see if you can find some SCV's and get em to build a few more bunkers and turrets. I'll be right back."

I ran out of the bar to be greeted by the sight of a oddly calm pandemonium. Everyone was gettin' stuff together and headin' toward a nearby shipyard. It was out of the sea of people that the familiar face of Joeyray ran up to me.

"Local sensors are goin' nuts Jim. The zerg really here?"

"Yep. In force. You guys got an evacuation plan?"

Joeyray looked rather proud. "Hell you kiddn' Jim? After the last time we got shafted by the government we made damn sure we had our own escape plan before we resettled here. We got enough ships to get everybody out of here. They're just grabbin' their valuables and necessities."

I nodded in relief. It'll be hard enough gettin' my boys out of here but evacuating Mar Sara would be pushin' impossible.

But even so…

"Zerg will be here in under an hour. If there's any one who can't make it to your ships I could take some aboard when my ride gets here."

"Appreciate that but we both know your raiders ain't no place for civilians. We should be able to get just about everyone out. Some local militia might still be out there and they'll probably join up if they don't get eaten first. You just keep the zerg busy and we'll get ourselves out of here. We'll head for the core worlds or maybe some of the other fringe worlds. We got it figured don't worry."

I didn't quite like the idea of not bein' able to help these folks out but Joeyray said they could handle themselves and I trust the guy. And spreadin' out my forces too much would just get us all killed.

"Alright then. But you make sure to give me a holler if somethin' comes up."

"Will do Jim. Now you best be gettin' back to your boys. They're gonna have their hands full soon."

"Alright. You take care man."

After that, he got ran like hell toward the starport helpin' some of the older folks along. As for me, I grabbed an old assault rifle, not nearly as big or as powerful as a C14, but it'll get the job done and I didn't have time to get into my armor.

I hightailed it back to the bridges to see my boys had pretty much gotten the defenses online. Tychus waved me over.

"Missile turrets are online Jimmy. We've also brought ammo by the crate load and built some extra bunkers on the high ground to fall back to when your extraction gets here. Only thing that would make this defense better is if we had ourselves some tanks."

Tychus must have been feelin' pretty cocky and if we were facing other Terrans I might be too. We had a pretty good defensive position that could only really be assaulted if backed up by heavy air or tank support.

But I know what the zerg can do even to the best defenses.

I nodded.

"Alright now that we got defenses ready I want teams to grab anything they can. Any spare ammo, weapons or supplies that the locals aren't takin' with them and load them up in the dropships. You'll have about 15 minutes to grab what ya can. After that, haul ass back here. Now get goin boys!"

They formed their own teams and set out takin' everything that the locals weren't takin' cause it was either that, or let the zerg burn it all down.

Which reminded me actually.

"Hey, Johnson!"

Johnson finished loading his rifle and looked down at me (man you feel small around CMC armor)

"Yes sir?"

"In the bar there's a juke box. Grab it and load it up in one of the drop ships. Oh and grab the TV too. " The old one in the Hyperion's cantina has been broken for weeks. Figure this was a good time to get a replacement.

To his credit, he only looked at me like I was a little crazy before he said "yes sir" and ran toward the bar. What can I say? I'm rather fond of that juke box.

Tychus chose that moment to run past me. "I'll give him a hand with the tv. But I ain't touchin that damn juke box!" Translation: "I ain't letting all that fine booze go to waste. And I hope your juke box burns in hell."

I grinned a little and then went back to getting the troops organized. Getting the ammo into places we could easily get it and making sure all the medics had the supplies they needed. Damn shame we didn't have the ordinance to just blow the bridges, that would make things a hell of a lot easier.

15 minutes later, everything we could take was loaded up into the dropships and we were all hunkered down into bunkers waiting for the swarm.

To add more to the mood, it had started to rain.

It was a few more minutes of awkward silence before Tychus finally said "maybe they decided to go the other way?"

I was about to tell Tychus what I thought of that idea when the proximity alarm went off and one of my boys yelled out.

"Here they come! Lock and load!"

A few dozen zerglings ran up the bridge. Like some sort of buggy dog from hell. Only to be met with a wall of solid neo steel and bullets.

A few more waves of zerglings attempted to run up the bridges and we mowed them down easily.

"Heh, these critters ain't so tough," Tychus said cockily.

I grit my teeth as I slapped in a fresh mag into my rifle. Now's not the time to try making the troops feel more at ease Tychus. And I know your wondering if these critters ain't so tough why's everybody scared out of their minds of them. You'll see in a bit ol' buddy.

Sure enough, about several dozen more zerglings attacked the bunkers a few of them getting close enough to score some pretty decent sized rents in the side of the bunker. After they were dealt with, I realized that such damage could prove fatal in the long run.

"Get some SCV's repairing these bunkers. Do it between attacks."

Sure enough, the SCV's did their thing and made the bunker good as new. Just in time because a new wave of zerglings started running towards us again.

A few more waves of zerglings tried to make some passes and we were holding steady for now.

But then things got a little more complicated.

"To anyone hearing this message. We're pinned down near backwater station. Please assist!"

My adjutant got a lock on their location. Barely more than a klick away from the station. These must be some of the guys Joeyray was talkin' about. I didn't want to divide my forces or leave the defenses undermanned for any length of time. But on the other hand, I can't just leave people to the zerg. I'm no Mengsk.

"Tychus, I want you to lead a team to rescue those guys after the next wave. Don't argue with me Tychus!" I said as I saw the protest forming on his face. "We're gonna need every gun we can get to defend this station once the zerg hit their stride. As soon as the next wave's over, go get them and get back as fast as you can."

"Oh fine Jimmy," Tychus grumbled. I'd have gone to do it myself but without my suit, I'd be a liability out there. I just started wonderin' if I could get into my suit between waves, another wave of zerg started hittin' the base. But this time with a new creature I'd never seen in the flesh before.

Roaches. From Dominion intel I had "acquired" not too long ago, Roaches were tough and could regenerate pretty damn fast. They also had a rather nasty acid attack. Just when you think the zerg can't get any worse

The zerglings once again got some decent hits on the bunkers but when the roaches got close, their acid damn near melted the side of the bunker, and it several rifles trained on them to send them to the grave.

They may lack the range of a hydralisk, but they sure made up for it in toughness.

"Alright Tychus, grab your team and go!"

My old buddy didn't need tellin' twice, he and his team of about a dozen quickly got movin.

"And Tychus, don't forget they like to burrow!" I yelled one last bit of advice to him.

SCV's repaired the bunkers as fast as they could and we held off a few more waves. Learning that roaches are damn near murder on bunkers. A few minutes later, Tychus came runnin' back with a few dozen more marines than he had left with.

"You owe my a drink partner!" He said less than amused.

Hell Tychus, I'll give you two. With our new reinforcements helping to hold the line, I'm starting to feel a little bit better.

The sound of gunfire became more and more constant as the night went on. Zerg would attack, we'd hold it off, SCV's would repair the damage and we'd be back at it again. We still had plenty of ammo though, so that was good. But the zerg should be about ready to shake things up soon.

No sooner than I thought that, Tychus gave out a warning.

"Multiple air bogies detected. ETA, right the hell now!"

I didn't need to tell anyone to take cover. We all hunkered down in the bunkers and let the missile turrets take out all the mutilisks.

Must have been almost a hundred mutilisks trying to break the defenses. Their glave wurm bouncing off just about everything to cause more damage. Lucky for us, each missile shot by our turrets took em down almost a dozen at a time. We were just starting to repair again when the ground zerg surged toward us tyring to take us off guard. Everybody's finger went white on their triggers as we shot into the writhing swarm. Zerglings throwin themselves into the lead we were pourin out out without a care in the world and the roaches soaking up bullets like a damn sponge.

As soon as that was over we got another distress call.

"Mayday,mayday! We're trapped by the zerg, they're burrowed all around us, if you can reach us, please help!"

I did a quick scan to see if any zerg waves were incoming. Seeing nothing I looked at Tychus.

"Take a rest Tychus, I'll let you sit this one out."

But he just shook his head. "Naw ol' buddy, I got this. Besides like you said, we need every gun we can get. Alright ladies lets go!"

With that, Tychus and a new team started to head out. But before they did, Tychus lowered his visor and scanned the outlying area.

"Uh Jimmy?" he asked. "Why is the ground changing color and moving?"

I did another scan of my own. "That's creep Tychus. Zerg spread it around. It nourishes their hive structures. They're setting up shop here."

"Already! Its only been a few hours."

"Zerg work fast Tychus. Better get a move on."

He nodded and went out. Mercifully, we had a few minutes of quiet at the base. Enough time to prepare for the next wave. Which hit pretty hard with several dozen roaches.

"Keep at it boys! Our rides on its way!" I encouraged them. Looking at the clock, we had about 2 and a half hours till sunrise. On the bright side, at least the rain looked like it stopped.

Another message came in, this one panicked and fearful with the sounds of zerg shrieks and guns in the background. "We need immediate support. Hostiles all around us. IS ANYONE OUT THERE!"

I tried to get a message out to them but the suit to suit coms weren't workin. I could only hope that Tychus ran into them on the way back.

I couldn't think too much on it cause the zerg hit us from several angles. As we fought, I noticed that the creep was now touching the bridges. We also had several incoming zerg drop pods coming down on our heads.

"Incoming!" the drop pods disintegrated into creep. Great now we got the stuff in our base. And just as zerg started a massive wave of attack. Zerglings, roaches, hydralisks and mutilisks, it was a complete assault. And if it kept up, our defenses were gonna break.

"Hold out just a little longer we'll be getting out of here soon." I tried to rally my troops over the hail of gunfire and zerg screams. Damn it Tychus where are you? You didn't…

Another hail of gunfire interrupted that thought before it could finish. Tychus and his team was hitting the attacking zerg from the back. Muscling his way though them to get back on the other side of the bunkers. As they all got back behind the bunkers, Tychus yelled over at me.

"Ran into another group while we were out there. And if you EVER ask me to do something like that again I will shoot you Jimmy!"

I couldn't respond because one of my boys at the other bridge seemed to panic a bit. "They're breaking through!" I turned to the other bridge, sure enough, one bunker was down and my boys were backing up to avoid the roaches. They needed back up fast.

Me, Tychus and our new troops ran toward the second bridge and standing shoulder to shoulder with the troops there, we locked down our triggers and poured buckets of lead into the advancing swarm.

Tychus roared as the adrenaline coursed through his veins. Nothing like zerg to get the ol heart pumping. As mutilisks swamed above and zerglings poured into our base, we _still _managed to hold.

Then time slowed down as I saw one zergling hop on the head of a dying hydralisk and leap toward Tychus, its claws aimed for his helmet visor I aimed my rifle to get it fist.

_Click._

Empty.

Damn.

On instinct alone I dropped my rifle grabbed my revolver, took aim and let one bullet fly.

The bullet went right between the little monster's eyes but it still hit Tychus hard enough to knock him on his ass.

I ran over to him and kicked the corpse off of his armor.

"Ever gonna go on about how I waste my time with antiques Tychus?"

"Shut up," he groaned as he lifted himself to his feet. I took one look around and realized something.

The sun was just starting to peak over the horizon and the swarm was on us in all its fury.

"Brace yourselves boys here they come!"

The last wave had only ended two seconds ago before this one started. And now that the zerg had established a base, they wouldn't stop until we were dead.

The bunkers were beyond salvation now so we all continued to back away from the bridges as the swarm broke through the scrap and poured in from all sides.

"We're gettin; tore up out here!" Tychus yelled. "We gotta fall back to high ground!"

"Fall back!" I shouted as I slammed a fresh clip into my rifle and continued shooting. "Get to high ground!"

Fresh bunkers were on the high ground and my boys quickly dove into them while the rest of us took cover behind them or behind the railing.

"Keep em off the ramp don't let em get close to the bunkers!"

But that's the thing about the zerg. Once they attack, trying to shoot the swarm feels a lot like trying to plug a leak with a toothpick. It just doesn't work.

Our guns were workin' overtime and the missile turrets that weren't destroyed must have been nearly out of missiles by now. Come to think of it, I think we were all starting to run low on ammo. This ain't good.

But then a voice that I've been wanting to hear since this whole thing started finally spoke over the comm..

"Commander this is Matt Horner. Just hold on, cavalry's on the way."

"Take your time Matt. No rush!"

In other words, hurry the hell up or you'll be pickin us out of their teeth!

Not a single gun stopped firing as long as it had ammo in it. Zerg were dying by the hundreds as we rained lead on em. But there was always more and they just kept comin'.

Come on Matt, come on…

The zerg were starting to rip the front of the bunkers apart which would have been the end of the line for us when one of the most beautiful sights I'd ever seen dropped down from the heavens.

The Hyperion, Mengsk's old flagship, now the closest thing I had to a home and the most beautiful ship in the sector as far as I was concerned right then and there.

When she arrived she arrived all guns blazing. Vaporizing zerg by the thousands as she headed toward us. Even destroying the bridges to cut off the zerg swarm.

That didn't slow the zerg down long though, some giant _worm _thing erupted from the ground and zerg started to emerge from it.

But the familiar whine of the Hyperion's yamato cannon filled the ear and a mini ball of thermonucular power incinerated the creature and all the smaller ones around it.

Then the guns started to focus on the mutilisks in the sky as the ship settled over us like a giant neo-steel guardian.

"Cavalry's arrived. Anyone still alive down there?" he asked.

All the troops cheered as they saw the Hyperion above us. I couldn't help but smile with them.

"Good to see you Matt. Welcome to the party!"

"Glad we made it in time sir. Now let's get you boys out of there."

Couldn't have said it better myself.


	4. Escape from Mar Sara

Disclaimer: Don't own Starcraft. Saw the new trailer for heart of the swarm as I started writing this. I gotta say, it looks even more epic than wings of liberty, I just hope they manage to keep it together and tell a great story. I decided to give this cutscene its own chapter, so I can hopefully convey more awesomeness from it. As always everyone please read, review and enjoy.

Escape from Mar Sara

Under the Hyperion's cover, we hightailed it to our drop ships all of us crammed in there a bit tight what with all the new comers, but for getting away from a zerg invasion, we suffered through. Soon enough, we were docked in the Hyperion, As soon as all the drop ships were on, I could feel a slight movement as the Hyperion started to move out. Good ol' Matt, always a step ahead.

I didn't waste any time as I ran straight for the bridge with Tychus right behind my. Doing my best to keep steady as the ship shook slightly as mutilisks really started hammerin her.

I quickly reached the doors to the bridge, as they opened with a faint whine Tychus practically whistled in appreciation of the entire ship. "Damn Jimmy. You've been holdin' out on me."

Thought my revolution only had a couple of drop ships and some gauss rifles eh Tychus? I didn't answer him as I lit a cigar and brought it up to my mouth as I addressed the always professional form of my second in command Matt Horner. He always did look rather proper, like he was part of an actual military; the one clash with his professional clothes was the skull and cross bones belt buckle he liked to wear.

"Cuttin' it pretty close there Matt," I said as the shaking got a little bit more intense. The zerg must be hitting us pretty damn hard to feel that.

Matt turned to me with a slight grin.

"Never left you hanging before sir."

He had a point. Matt's saved my bacon quite a few times. You couldn't ask for a better XO.

"Fair enough, just get us the hell out of here."

Matt addressed the crew through the comms. "All batteries, concentrate forward firepower."

Good, that would help prevent mutilisks getting in the way of the warp.

"Spin up drives two and six," he continued.

The zerg were really starting to hit us hard now. Swann wasn't gonna be happy. If we got out of here before we died that is. Hold together a little longer darlin, I thought to the ship.

"All hands brace for warp jump on my mark," he brought his watch up to his face waiting for the right moment.

I bit my cigar in worry, as time seemed to slow down. The Hyperion was tough but she had limits. Behind me I heard Tychus grab a handhold, I braced my feet for the jump. Ready for the big lurch that came from a warp jump out of the atmosphere. Come on Matt…

The last second ticked down on Matt's watch

"Mark."

And the sensation of falling face first and then ass backwards signaled that we had jumped successfully. Leaving thousands of mutilisks reeling in the sky as we blasted out of Mar Sara.

When we reemerged in real space we were fairly close to a small sun. Nicely done Matt, he must have used its gravitational pull to prevent us from emerging clear across the other side of the sector. On the downside, it had the effect of makin' me bite through my cigar so hard it damn near split it. I dropped it and put it out with my foot without much thought. I needed answers right now.

"What the hell happened? We ain't seen the zerg in years. Why attack Mar Sara now?"

Matt's expression looked somber. This wasn't good.

"Its not just Mar Sara. You need to see this," he turned on a small console and several news channels blared to life as Matt cycled through them.

"Zerg swarm launched a full scale attack."

"Devastation spread throughout the all outer rim planets."

"Sustained heavy losses."

"Casualties in the _billions."_

My blood turned cold as I saw the information. Not even Mengsk's news could fake an entire zerg invasion. They were back.

And that meant…

"Minutes ago, the zerg attacked a Dominion research facility…" an explosion cut off that broadcast forever and the scenes switched to various forms of slaughter and invasion as the zerg poured out through the fringe worlds.

Tychus walked behind us and looked down at the devastation on the screen.

"Sweet mother of mercy," he breathed in disbelief.

I glanced over at him and had the oddest feeling about him before I turned back to the screen.

And felt my heart skip a beat. _No._

"New, exclusive video footage confirms, the Queen of Blades is in fact leading the swarm."

The screen showed a shadowy, tall female figure with bone like wings and spiky tendrils for hair. But any doubt anyone would have that it was her would have been gone as soon as she faced the camera, those glowing eyes seeming to burn with just a look before it faded to black.

I slumped into the nearest chair, not trustin' my legs to hold me up as I rested my head on my hand.

No, not now. I'm not ready. I'm not ready yet. Its too soon, I need more time…I'm just not ready.

But all the pleadin' in the sector wasn't goin' to change the fact that she was back. After four long years, she's come back.

"We always knew she'd be back," Matt said gravely. "But what's she after?"

But I know Kerrigan, I know her better than most people. And that's how I knew that there was only one reason why she would come back. Just one reason.

"She's come to finish the job."

And from the darkest reaches of space itself, for a moment I swear I could have heard her voice whispering.

_I'm back Jimmy..._


	5. General Status

Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft or anything associated with Blizzard or anything else associated with them, or anything associated with the state of…oh forget it.

I may take some liberties with dialog in order to move things along (dodges knives and rotten fruit) yes yes I know but all to tell the story better and I'll make sure to keep it as close to the game as possible because I too loath it when someone doesn't match the dialog correctly. Please don't hate me ; P

Now here's where things will get a little interesting now that the adventure has truly kicked off. As always everyone please read, review and enjoy!

General Status

_14 Minutes Later_

The next few minutes passed by in a blur to me and I'm not even sure how long I sat in that chair thinking about Kerrigan's return. I vaguely recall finally getting out of that chair and briefly introducing Matt to Tychus before walking to a nearby corridor to grab a quick drink from my flask.

As I gulped down more of the burning liquid than I probably should have, I tried to put my thoughts in order. _Ok Jim, just calm down. Kerrigan is back and from the look of things she's gonna make her way into terran space a planet at a time. You don't have the resources or the manpower to take her on. So focus on what you __**can**__ do._

I brought my flask down and for a moment, I slumped against the wall. What could I do? Even if Kerrigan's left the safety of Char killing her is still damn near impossible. Then again…Mengsk on the other hand, maybe…

Back during the first great war Mengsk used the Zerg invasions to the advantage of his revolution. Picking at the Confederacy while a lot of there forces were busy with the alien invasions. If it worked for him maybe I could do the same thing. With Mengsk being busy with the Zerg, I might have more breathing room to make a difference with this revolution.

And if Kerrigan shows up…there might just be a chance however unlikely, a chance to kill her.

I shook my head to remind myself to not get too far ahead of myself. For now, I need to build up my forces again, repair our equipment and the ship maybe recruit some more soldiers if were gonna make any sort of difference. And to do that, we're gonna need credits. Looks like these Moebius jobs of Tychus should keep us busy for a bit.

Finally calmed down, I straightened myself out and walked back into the bridge. Matt looked at me in understanding, knowing that the return of the Zerg had rattled me.

Hell, it probably rattled everybody.

"Are you alright sir?"

"I'm fine Matt. Let's just get down to business."

Matt nodded, "Yes sir. Well there's no telling what the Zerg will throw against us this time. Sir we need to make sure our hardware and munitions are up to the challenge."

I nodded thinking the same thing.

"Yeah I'll check in with Swann down in the armory. Knowing him, he's already got upgrades for us."

An uncomfortable look crossed Matt's face.

"I hate to ask sir, but is there a reason that _convict's _still on my bridge?" The disdain in his voice was all but askin' why haven't I thrown him in the brig yet.

He must have done some diggin' on Tychus while I was in the hall. Always was thorough. Reminds me of a time when Matt wouldn't have minded havin' Tychus aboard no matter his past. The years have hardened the boy a bit.

"Easy Matt. Tychus is one of my oldest friends. He helped me out of a real bind a few years back. I owe him."

That didn't seem to settle Matt though.

"Well your _friend, _has a criminal record as long as…"

"Mine?" I asked dryly. Reminding Matt I didn't exactly have a squeaky clean past myself. But the thing Matt really wanted to know was weather we could trust Tychus or not.

"Believe me, if Tychus Findlay wanted me dead, I'd be dead already."

"Understood sir," he accepted it but still didn't seem happy about it. Ah well, he'll get over it. With that done, Matt walked over to one of the consoles on the bridge to get more news about the Zerg.

Tychus in the meantime, still seemed in awe of the ship. Looking around at the many furnishings in admiration.

"One hell of a ship you got here Jimmy. How'd you get a hold of a floatin' palace like this?"

I smiled as I remembered exactly how we got this ship. Stealing it right from Mengsk's shipyards. Hell of a way to tell the boss you quit that's for sure.

"The Hyperion was Mengsk's flagship back in the day. Me an' Matt decided to _borrow _her when we parted company with him."

I looked around, I'd be lyin' if I said I hadn't grown fond of the old girl in the years since we first started out on this venture. Home sweet home I guess.

"This old baby's seen us through some tight spots."

Matt looked up from the console he was working at.

"Speaking of tight spots Tychus, why are you still wearing that suit on my bridge?"

That's a good question actually.

"Yeah, what'd you bust the zipper or somethin?" It's been known to happen occasionally. But only to really unlucky people.

Tychus though, seemed a bit put out by this.

"Ok, so I might've had a _little _help when I broke out of prison. Let's just say it came at a price. I get to stay locked up in this suit till I pay off all my debts."

Huh, knew there had to be some sort of catch.

"And who's collectin' those debts? Who sprung ya?"

"Them Moebius boys O'course." He said as though it were obvious. " I didn't just run into them in a museum y'know. They want them artifacts somethin' fierce."

I still couldn't let go of the feelin' that Tychus was hidin' somethin'. But what could I do? Tychus always was one to play things close to the chest. Had it just been me an' him like in the old days I would have let it lie. But now I had people to look out for.

"Your debts better not bite us in the ass Tychus," I warned him. "Coverin' for your shenanigans ain't part of the deal."

He just nodded in an alright alright kind of gesture. But that was enough about that, I better go say hi to Swann.

"Uh sir? Sir?"

I turned around to see Egon Stetmann running down the corridor after me.

Oh boy, I know what this is gonna be about.

"Any chance you'll get the lab up and running soon? That'd be great."

"For the millionth time Stetmann, I'll get to it when I have the chance alright?"

"Yes I know sir."

I started walking away.

"Its just that lately I've been coming up with so many ideas and without a proper work space…"

"I get it Stetmann."

" I mean just think sir! New armor prototypes, new munitions capability, radical breakthroughs in medicine and AI…"

"How many of those drinks have you had today?" I interrupted.

Stetmann looked confused. "Uhhhhh, just the one…"

What the hell was in those drinks?

"…dozen," he finished after a mercifully lengthy pause.

Ah, that's more like it.

I sighed. "Report to the med bay for something to calm you down before your heart gives out. If you need something to do write down your ideas and you can get to them when I get the lab up and running. Deal?"

The young scientist looked like he wanted to continue dazzling me with science talk but he relented with a slightly disappointed "ok" and started speed walking down another corridor.

"Uh Stetmann?"

"Yes sir?"

"The med bay is that way," I said pointing to the opposite direction he was walking.

"Ah thank you sir. Now let's see, dividing by the negative inverse, no, no, no, no. Argh where are my notes? If only I didn't lose that stapler of mine…"

He continued down the hall muttering something about a red stapler and shook my head a little. He's a damn fine kid and smart as hell, but he does tend to talk your ear off sometimes especially when he's had too many of those Blizz drinks of his. I don't know what the hell is in those drinks but Kachinsky, one of the engineers around here sampled a can, from Stetmann and we had to kickstart his heart again after it stopped. The cans do have a cool logo though can't deny that.

I neared the armory and as the doors opened a familiar voice called out to me.

"Hey everybody our glorious leader has returned!"

The short, stocky figure of Rory Swann gestured dramatically with his human arm while the claw on his robotic one opened and closed to make a kind of clapping sound.

I smirked at his smartass antics that had him chuckling while I neared the console he was standing at.

When I got close he finally stopped his laughing. "Hey man what's up cowboy?"

I decided to get straight to business.

"What do you got for me Swann?"

The engineer somehow looked rather proud as he replied.

"Oh the usual, building up our standing forces."

"Bringing my troops and hardware up to speed huh?" I like the sound of that. A happy Swann usually meant a productive Swann. And a productive Swann meant lots of upgrades.

"Yep, we can go over upgrades to our tech right here on the console over here. But building an army on the run ain't cheap. You brought back credits this time right?"

He almost seemed to be accusing me of not earning enough money to fund his projects and get materials for the ship.

"Look I know money's been tight. But that artifact we just picked up on Mar Sara is gonna solve everything."

I'm glad I wasn't expectin' Swann to be impressed, because he sure as hell didn't look impressed in the slightest.

"I've heard that before brother."

"Its different this time," I insisted.

Swann looked downright bored. "Yeah, I've heard that one too."

Damn smartass dwarf.

But back to business.

"Upgrading what we got is all well an' good but when are we getting new hardware? A lot of gaps in our inventory right now."

"There'd be less gaps if I had the materials to fix our old equipment. Hell we got a squadron of Wraiths and a bunch of old Goliaths that we could use if they weren't practically in pieces. But in all honesty I'm going to need schematics to upload to our factory network in order to make new stuff. Sometimes we get those on jobs as payment but other times, we're gonna need to beg, borrow or steal them. I've also got a couple already in the network that I'm trying to work on but I'm gonna need the materials to build them and to get materials I'm gonna need…"

"Credits I know Swann I know."

The engineer sighed. "Sorry bout that cowboy, just a bit stressed right now. Zerg tend to have that affect on people yeah?"

"Heh, tell me about it. Well even with all the gaps in the inventory at least we still got the Hyperion."

A look of horror crossed Swann's face.

"Wait, Matt didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" I don't like where this is goin'

Swann started to look more than a bit pissed at that. "I can't believe it, he let me get stuck giving you the bad news."

With a sound between a sigh and a groan, Swann looked back at me. "The Hyperion's practically out of commission Jim. We're not gonna be able to use her in a fight anytime soon."

Damn.

"What do you mean by that? You just saved our butts from getting eaten alive by the Zerg with the Hyperion. She seemed to be doin' just fine during all of that."

Swann looked like someone just killed his puppy. "Yeah well, that was kind of her last hurrah before things started fallin' apart. We just haven't been able to give her the care she needs cowboy. Ship like this needs a lot of maintenance. Without it, you get the problems we have now. Like lack of ammo for the guns, hardly any energy for the laser batteries, systems going offline left and right. Half the doors won't even open on some of the lower decks Jim. And don't get me started on the damage we took."

Great, my ship is falling apart. Bracing myself I asked him the one thing I didn't want to ask.

"How much damage we talkin' about?"

"Well considering we dropped right out of warp almost directly into the atmosphere of Mar Sara, nearly burnt out some of the engines making sure we didn't crash and then went in all guns blazing to pull you and your boys assess out of the fire, all the while being pounded by mutalisks, and then warping out of the Sara system while we were still in the atmosphere. Not bad. Considering that one bad move could have torn the ship clean in half."

I felt a major need for another drink right then.

"But don't worry cowboy. She's not going to fall apart anytime soon. She's too tough for that. She's just not in any condition to get into any big fights."

"Alright Swann I got it. Just tell me the yamato cannon still works at least?"

"Nope. Burnt out the magnetic coils on it. We''re gonna need to replace those unless we want to blow off our front end when we use the cannon. So for now we've taken it completely off line."

Really need a drink now.

"Well ok then we'll make due without it. I'll see what I can do to get you credits and materials for the repairs. Try to get her ready for a fight when you can Swann."

"On top of all my other projects? You sure know how to keep a guy busy hotshot. Haha, I'll do my best. Just make sure we don't run out of coffee anytime soon ok?"

"Hah! It'll be a cold day in hell before I let that happen brother. Now let's take a look at some hardware."

Swann and I spent the next half hour talkin' about what to get for our troops. Eventually we settled for the new combat shields and a projectile accelerator for our bunkers. After that, I told Swann to use the rest of the petty cash as he saw fit. Not that there was a whole lot of it left but still.

After that was done with, I figured it was time to check in with Matt again, see what else was up.

When I got back onto the bridge, Tychus was still on the bridge talkin' to a couple of people and Matt looked very grim. I knew this wasn't gonna be good.

"Just how bad is it Matt?"

"Zerg are attacking all over the sector sir. Mengsk pulled the fleet back to protect the Dominion core worlds, leaving the fringe worlds to fend for themselves." He shook his head. "It's a nightmare."

Damn.

"There's no way we can stop an alien invasion with one capital ship and a handful of volunteers." Especially if the ship if broken.

Tychus chose that moment to cut in.

"Best we just stay clear partner. We can earn ourselves a fortune workin' for Moebius while this whole thing blows over."

Wrong thing to say with Matt around cause he looked pissed right now.

"You don't get it _convict," _anger dripping from his words.

" This isn't gonna just blow over. The Zerg won't stop until we're all dead!"

"Don't worry Matt," I said quickly before things became a shouting match. "We ain't sittin' this one out. But we're not exactly in tip top shape either. We'll earn some cash and build up our forces so we can make a difference when it counts."

Matt reigned himself in and was smart enough to know that I was right on this one.

"Yes sir."

"But for now, we're gonna take some time off. We gotta repair what we can and we also got a lot of new recruits we gotta add to the roster."

"I've already started on that sir. The list should be in your room so you can go over it."

I wanted to say "good man" but the only thing that came out was a sudden yawn.

Luckily my XO decided to have some sympathy for me. "But for now I suggest you get some rest sir. You've been fighting Zerg all night. Most of the new recruits as soon as they got their quarters passed out on their bunks. Get a few hours of shuteye I'll take care of things here."

I wanted to argue, say that there was too much work to be done to waste sleeping. But my body wasn't having any of it. And all the adrenaline and coffee that was in me finally ran out leaving me tired as hell.

"Alright then Matt but get me if anything big comes up."

"Always sir."

"Hey ,Tychus" I looked over at him. "You got a place to sleep?"

"Yeah, one of your boys, Cade I think set me up with something cozy. I'll make due."

I nodded and without another word I left the bridge to make my way to my quarters.

Over the years I made some improvements to Mengsk's old quarters. Truth be told it now looked a lot like my old marshal's office on Mar Sara. With a nice desk to do work on and a few mementos here and there but for the most part the room was pretty sparse.

The only real luxury I allowed myself in the quarters was my own private liquor cabinet right next to my bunk.

As I laid myself down I grabbed a bottle from the cabinet and popped it open. Taking a long gulp of the whisky.

With a sigh I grabbed the vidsnap of Kerrigan from my pocket and looked over it again.

_Well darlin' you're back. Back to kill us all. _I thought with another swig of whisky. _Sooner or later we're gonna run into each other and when we do, if I get the chance I'm gonna put a bullet right between your eyes. For everything you've done and are gonna do, you have to die._

_ It's the only way to make things right. Only way I can make up for my mistakes._

I don't know when I finished the entire bottle or when I passed out, but when I did I was glad for it, too many ghosts haunting me.

Too many faces of people I've failed.

_Two hours later._

After making sure that the convict got his own quarters and that they weren't near anything too important or vital to the ship, I was going to head toward my own bed to get some shuteye but I had a hunch that I should check in on Jim.

I opened up his doors hoping that the wheezing sound they would inevitably make wouldn't wake him up (I'd ask Swann to look into it but with all the things that need taking care of on this ship, wheezy doors are the least of our problems)

And sure enough, Jim was passed out with an empty bottle of whiskey on the floor near him.

I couldn't hold back a sigh. I can't say I wasn't expecting this. With the Zerg's return I knew that wouldn't have a good affect on Jim's mental state.

Quietly as I could I grabbed the empty bottle and threw a spare blanket over Jim. Hate to say it but I've gotten pretty good at this. Granted I haven't needed to do this for awhile now but every now and then…

Not for the first time I thought about throwing out all the booze from the ship but that wouldn't solve the problem, and we'd probably have a mutiny if I did that.

As I threw the blanket over him I caught a glimpse of the vidsnap in his hand.

I didn't need to see the front of it to know who's picture it was. It was a picture of a rather attractive red headed woman in ghost gear. The woman that Jim had vowed to kill.

And a constant source of guilt for him.

"Damn it Jim, when are you gonna stop torturing yourself?" I asked quietly. The only answer I got was a light snore.

With nothing else that could be done I silently left his quarters to grab some sleep.

I still believe in him, he's still the best man I've ever met. But if he keeps going on like this, the Jim Raynor I know is just gonna get swallowed up by his own bitterness. Then they'll be hardly anything left of the man I admire.

The crews noticed it a lot too. Jim just doesn't have the fire that he used to have and its been getting worse lately. Even spreading to some of the crew. Hell some days it even gets to me. Can't even think about letting it show though, cause once it looks like I'm doubting things then the Raiders will really fall apart.

But enough about that. The Zerg coming back has changed things and maybe we can really start to finally make a difference. That's why everybody signed up for this. And its been too long since we've done that.

And we better do it soon, for Jim's sake if nothing else.


	6. The Evacuation of Agria part 1

Discaimer: I do not own anything to do with starcraft or Blizzard. I'm I am so so sorry this has taken so long. I'm wretched, a horrible excuse for life. I'm worthless. (goes off to commit sepuku) Ok maybe I'll hold off on the sepuku. I'm hoping I'll be able to crank some more stories out now but I can't really make any promises. Before we start I'd like to say thanks to Rainbowhawk for the stellar review, I'm glad you like it : ) And without any more ado, please read, review and enjoy!

The Evacuation of Agria

"Ow," I grabbed my head to try to prevent it from bein' split in half. Didn't really seem to do much good.

"Damn," what the hell did I drink last night? Oh right…

With a groan I got out of my bunk and headed right for the shower. The intense blasts of highly concentrated water didn't do my head any favors but it was nice not to smell like a locker room.

Once I dried off, I went to the sink and gave my face another wash before brushing my teeth. After throwing on a fresh pair of clothes, I was almost starting to feel human again. All I needed was…

The smell of it as it cheered me up almost as much as the thought of shooting Mengsk out an airlock. Coffee. It may be barely drinkable coffee but it still does the trick all right.

With a mug of the magical drink in hand I made my way to the bridge. My head still pounded a bit but it was nothin' I couldn't manage.

The doors wheezed open to reveal Matt looking over the starmap with his brow furrowed apparently he just had some sort of argument with Tychus cause they were both looking daggers at each other. I have a feelin' this is gonna be a busy day.

"What's our general status Matt?"

"We've picked up a distress call from the planet Agria. There's a colony there under attack by the Zerg." His tone of voice made it clear that he wanted nothing more than to rush there immediately.

"Your convict buddy Tychus lined up a mission retrieving another artifact. Its on a Protoss shrine-world called Monlyth."

"Why wasn't I informed about a distress signal?"

"We only received it a few minutes ago, I was about to send someone to get you sir."

I looked at the clock. Damn, it was practically noon, shipboard time. Guess I better watch it with the drinks a little.

Well if we had only gotten the signal a few minutes ago, there was still a chance we might be able to get there in time.

"Let me hear it Matt."

He nodded and pressed a button. The message was slightly garbled and filled with a decent amount of static but we could all hear it well enough.

"Any ship receiving this transmission, the Zerg are invading Agria, the Dominion abandoned us here. We're just a small farming colony, we've got to evacuate before we're overrun. If you can hear this message, please help us."

Abandoned by the Dominion huh? Yep that about fits Mengsk's MO. Tychus didn't seem to like the thought of goin' on a rescue mission and even I'll admit goin' after the artifact seemed to be a smarter choice. Money for the troops and not having to tangle with the Zerg. I'll have to talk to Tychus about this job of his but for now…

"Matt, how are the troops doin?"

"Most of them are rested up and ready for some action sir. I told them to get ready for a fight today. But some of the soldiers from Mar Sara could still use some rest so I recommend taking the troops you didn't bring with you to Mar Sara."

Smart. Let the boys who saw action on Mar Sara rest a bit more if the situation gets bad enough that I'll need backup…one thing at a time Jim

"Alright then Matt, good call. Well it looks like we've got a colony to save. How long will it take to plot a jump?"

Matt smiled a bit, "already on it sir. Just give me a few more minutes."

"Good man. How bout you Tychus? Feelin' up for a scrap today?"

He didn't seem all that happy but he nodded anyway. "Well somebody's gotta save your ass Jimmy. And who knows? Maybe some of them colonists will be willing to part with some credits in…gratitude.

Matt looked outright horrified at the prospect of taking money from colonists who just lost their home. Couldn't say I liked it either but creds don't grow on starships.

"Alright then." I walked over to a console and hit ship wide on the intercom. "Now hear this, all troops fit for combat suit up, grab your gear, plenty of ammo and get to the dropships. There's Zerg invading a colony and the Dominion ain't exactly steppin' in to help out. It's up to us boys to save those folks, we gotta get them off world as fast as we can. So prep for an escort job, this could get hairy."

I switched off ship wide and toggled it to Swann's console. "Swann, you got anything for me?"

The bags under his eyes were pretty noticeable but he seemed as upbeat as ever.

"Yeah hotshot, just finished machining a bunch of those combat shields. I'm already having our boys equip em'. Plus I'm putting the finishing touches on a little somethin' extra that you'll like."

"You're a miracle worker Swann."

"And don't you forget it cowboy. Now let me get back to work."

With that he immediately cut the link. Hopefully after we've rescued those folks he'll be able to get some sleep.

"Matt," I barked. "Get us to Agria ASAP. I want us there yesterday."

"Aye sir."

I looked around at the bustling crew all ready and willing to do their part.

"This is gonna be an interesting day."

_45 minutes later._

"Receiving incoming transmission."

An image of a woman who was obviously of the scientific persuasion came up on the screen. She had rather nice green eyes hidden behind her glasses and her ebony hair tied back in a ponytail. All in all, I gotta say she was pretty cute lookin'.

"Thank you for responding so quickly commander. I'm Dr. Ariel Hanson and I represent the people of the Agria colony."

"Pleasure to meet ya doc. You can call me Jim." Her eyes widened a little bit as she realized she was talking to the "infamous bloodthirsty marauding terrorist Jim Raynor" but other than that she didn't react. "What's the situation?"

When asked about that her eyes filled up with barely repressed pain. This girl was hurtin' pretty bad.

"The zerg have overwhelmed our planetary defenses." She braced herself, "the colony is lost."

"For the past 12 hours we've been evacuating people to the nearest starport but the zerg attacks have become so intense we can't get any more through."

I watched as the screen began to show images of entire convoys being ripped apart and literally eaten alive by zerglings. Damn you Kerrigan…

"If you can guard the highway, we can start sending the remaining groups every few minutes."

I nodded at the display on the screen highlighting the path. Simple enough, in theory but it wouldn't do to worry the poor girl any more than she already was.

"Don't worry doc, we'll get your folks through to that starport safe and sound."

To be honest, she didn't look all that reassured. Can't say I blame her.

"I pray your right commander, the zerg are more terrible than I ever imagined."

I looked back at the images of men, women and children being devoured by the swarm. Hate to say it darlin' but this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the zerg.

I disconnected the comm and turned to Matt.

"Everyone ready to go?"

"Good to go sir, just waiting on you."

"Tell the dropships to launch as soon as I'm on board."

Matt nodded. "Yes sir, we'll stay in orbit and provide whatever support we can. We'll be watchin'."

"Good. Take care of the ship Matt," I said as I started to leave the bridge.

"Always sir."

I headed toward the hanger at a quick jog. Once there, I grabbed my rifle and nodded to my troops.

"Alright boys, let's go."


End file.
